A Woman at Bay

her like her. She could not by any stretch of the imagination have been called beautiful; she was too masculine in her appearance for

r eyes were large, and round, and full, and fierce, and she held her head, with its crown of dead-black hair, as if she wer

appearance, from the top of his head to the shoes he wo

we here?" s

calls himself,"

n you s

es

into the bushes, and who did not harm you when he might

e s

er attention

you?" she

ess," replied Nick, speaking boldly, for he

hatever that betokens the str

e of a crib before you crack it," w

u come from?

s all the same to you," said Nick coolly; and she

ntry, and finally induced you to make your camp

want the plai

asy tone; "that is, if you

arry, the Beggar King. I have heard that he has gathered around him a lot of my kind, and I reckoned that maybe h

e three men who

with me. I

er men there when Han

es

are t

t as well, or better, than

to join the force

e, and because I have heard that he

can yo

I am told to, once I hav

rs a good deal of ground. Now,

bout him in a g

ou where to

immy the Sly, who was one of the many of the band who had been arrested and imprisoned; and after his release he had gone to Indianapolis, and d

Jimmy the S

es

be him

ace, and the longest fingers I ever saw; and h

cient. How comes it that Jim

you might burn yourself if you undertook to d

was still wondering if she were indeed the chief, or if she were only his represent

me to do with you, n

y eyes shut. I guessed pretty well what I was up against. But I cam

u know of H

thi

you thi

gazabo of

u suppose h

me very much like a beautiful woman who has t

Frenchman inste

nor the other. I'm

ut to say som

ing to sa

een a yeggman a

anybody who ha

truth now; aren't you under cover, and playing the r

o say yes, if

n your line o

passable druggist if I tried, and I wouldn't shy at taking a

k that you are a

But I don't reckon that you'll take me on my say-so. You'll be wanting

correct a

dy for a

ould crack a crib if necessary; you called yourself a druggist, which means that you know how to use the chemicals, and the poisons, too, if n

here is any mark t

't answer m

wanted to get out when a live man sto

ed to Handsome

im; and he replied, as if the question w

rt now-inside o

ak him in. Let him have the worst of it. If he

y. "What about the others? There are

im all the rope he needs-but watch him. I'd sooner trust him wi

e door after him. But all the way to the door, Nick kept his eyes upon the w

tinel, and were again in the part whi

me," he said. "I want

later. We must get away from here at once

es

ait there for me. I wo

as soon as they reached the glade, and Nick saw him d

the boat to be; and he was halfway across the glade when suddenly from one of the groups of men near a fire, one of them leaped up and

emanded, standing in front o

lone. This was doubtless one of their tricks-to see what a new recruit would do under these circumstances. Possibly, too, he though

who evidently possessed great strength. But Nick did not care for that. He was only turning over in his mind in that i

d again, still with the sarc

rted a step forward and seized the man by the throat-and-hip hold of ju-jutsu, an

ng the bushes, where there happened to be a mass of cat brier, or cree

een watching for the outcome of that episode; but he looked neit

and he leaped aside just as the fellow he had thrown

le pierced his coat

ed aside he

ery effort in his power to discharge the weapon again; but for some reason the mechanism of the lo

led him with the other until his face was a mass of bruises; and then, when the yeggman was in a condition bordering upon insen

swamp, he threw him out int

nd eyes, and nose, and mouth of the fellow, so that, when he rose to his fe

er to dry land as best he could, and turned coolly away t

said. "You served him

rom the shore, and along the waterway through the almost impenetrable

little. "Aren't you going to tie th

's too much trouble. Besides, you're all

funeral; not mine. Only if the la

replied Handsome dubiously. "But how is she going to

ick, "I won'

l dispense with

for a time after that;

lay to-night

nd out; and you'll have to do your own part, too; for if

ppose you w

u seem to be, I'd as soon put a hole in you a

e th

ght, and I'm going a great way toward proving what I think a

ers in this thing

for you is not to ask too many questions,

e was no more said until after they had arriv

that we left in the woods to-night, withou

bout 'em," was the reply; they were now

Hobo Harry is going

, Handsome turned on him with fury, and would have seized him had he not suddenly r

as quickly as it came, a

. "You were too cute for me, Dago. But it is

d Nick. "Any fool would have know

Harry's wife, or sister, or sweetheart, or something like that. There isn't half a dozen of us who really know for certain that B

ed noiselessly all the same. That last ad

t was that there was something so strikingly familiar about the

although very little was known about her really. There was a picture in the Rogues'

ho was the daughter of a Frenchwoman by an Italian father; Black Madge, who

grown-up child at that time, but she was already a hardened criminal, ne

he room with the chief, who was engaged in questioning her closely in reference to a crime that had been committed, and because it was thought tha

ill appear on your side of the water. I hope

eplied the

she has brains. The worst kind of a criminal. She should have been a man, for she has a man's

e had been in the room with her in that house in the swamp, he had felt that he ought to remember where he had seen th

ef told me," he thought, "that w

im while he was leaving her presence, and he wondered if her r

t one short glance she must have had of me at that time. And, besides, I was no

d Handsome. They had reached the fence at the rai

n to-night," replied Nick. "I'm not used to starting out without k

-"I won't use the whip

we waiting

utomobile," grinned Handsome. "Nice road for

" said

rking,

an automobile, sur

that we are waiting

wed him over; then they climbed the

les came momentarily nearer and nearer, the detective began thoroughly to re

roaching vehicle, for in a moment more it swept around a curve i

nstead of with rubber tires; wheels that had flanges to fit the tracks. But it was provided with a g

whom was driving; but he got down from the seat under the steering wheel

ay of introducing Nick to the others. What their names mi

men, while Nick was climbing

-and that was all that

rely comprehended the situation, and that all three of them were prepared to shoot him in th

ight prove to be upon which they were engaged, he was resolved to see it through to

len or whatever damage might be done that night, he would charge up in his expenses, an

t all, for if he was any judge of speed, he knew that they must be flying along at much more than a mile a minute-and he wondered what would happen if the he